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Look At This Before You Begin Working With Short Sales - Short Sales For Dummies

I'm writing to you from the Annual Howard Brinton Star Power Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. I met someone here who has a very unique program that you need to know about if you want to be prepared for the Short Sale market.

If you've done Short Sales before, or if you talk with anyone who has, you know they are very time consuming. Ron Garber has put together a program that is pretty awesome. For a small fee and a referral of earned commission, his company will do all the legwork, paperwork, phone work, etc. to coordinate with the banks for you. It's a pretty cool deal. Check it out at http://www.shortsaleplan.com/.

Just thought you'd like to know.

By: Marlene Bridges, REALTOR®

South Orange County, CA Real Estate and Homes

Posted by Laguna Homes|Laguna Condos| Laguna Real Estate|Marlene Bridges on 07/27/2007 11:43 PM

Comments (23)

short sales, california real estate, california short sales

23 Comments on Look At This Before You Begin Working With Short Sales - Short Sales For Dummies

JUL

2007

Marlene - What a great idea. I will have to look into this and share it at the office. Thanks for the great info, as always.

Joe - My pleasure. This guy really knows his stuff. It will take a huge burden off of us so we can kee doing business as usual. Short sales are so labor intensive.

Thanks, Marlene. I have been getting emails from a couple of different sources that offer services as well as classes on how to do short sales more effectively, from both sides of the fence. What they need are classes for the banks.

Jeff

Thanks, Marlene...I'll consider these guys & gals next time around.

Thanks Marlene!

Have you worked on short sales before? I have just started reading about the process of negotiating with the bank, etc. It sounds like something challenging - but rewarding (since you get to save a family from foreclosure)!

Take care,

Galel

Marlene

Thank you!

It is time to get some master minds together that know how to handle the foreclosure and short sale market, so we can help these clients save some dignity in the process. Ron has a great reputation, so I'd definitely look at his program. I've met a couple of others that have the same type of companies, who come from the asset management side of the business that could be tremendous resources.

As an author on this topic, with an extensive mortgage background, I will be in touch with you in the next week or so. Start thinking of realtors with more than 5 years of experience, regardless of area across the US, that we could refer business to.

JUL

2007

Jeff - You're so right - classes for the banks would solve a lot of problems!

John - Glad the info is helpful to yous Marlene!

Galel - Yes I've worked on short sales. They are a lot of work with the possibility of zero reward. It does feel good to help people, but we need to keep it in perspective. You can only help the people who want to be helped.

Bill - Thank you so much for your corroboration that this is one of the good guys! Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks, Marlene. This is the heart of AR--getting useful information out to the community. You're teriffic!

Mike - Thanks so much for your comment. Yes, I think this is very valuable information for many of us. By the time many of us figure out how this short sale business really works, it could be over...I hope.

We don't have a bunch going on but it may help if I happen to.

Hi Sally - Glad to hear you Hawaii home sales market is not experiencing as much of this as many parts of the country. We are seeing more short sales popping up in the Orange County homes listed on MLS. I think this service will be invaluable to real estate agents who are sincerely trying to help home owners sell their homes before foreclosure occurs. Thanks for stopping by to read and comment.

JUL

2007

Marlene,

I am the Dir. of Business Development for Shortsaleplan.com.

Thank you for the kind words and letting your friends know about our services.

I wanted to let everyone know that we are having to rework our website to handle the out of state traffic. The site will be a work in progress and complete in approx. 3+ weeks. In the meantime the phone and fax will work just fine. Our new website will have realtime tracking of the complete file process.

Ron Petruccione

Hi Ron - If you'll get that phone number to me, I'll post it in the blog. Thanks!

JUL

2007

Wow a short sale virtual assistant - NICE! - Thanks for the tip!

Hi Todd - Glad to help.

Marlene,

Our numbers are:

888/265-5652 Office

714/692-5652 Office

714/455-7354 Fax

customerservice@shortsaleplan.com

Ron Petruccione

Dir. Busi. Dev.

ronp@shortsaleplan.com

http://www.shortsaleplan.com/

AUG

2007

Have you personally used this company and if so how did the Short Sale go through?

Looks like good stuff - Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR®
Mission Grove Realty

Ann - No I haven't used them yet. I just learned about this company a few weeks ago and haven't had a opportunity to use their services. The owner of the company comes highly recommended by many of the people I respect in the business who have known him and know his reputatation.

John - Glad to pass this along. I'm always happy to pass along helpful info to my buddies here on AR. Blessings to you, John.

AUG

2007

I BELIEVE ALL AGENTS SHOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT THEIR PROSPECTIVE SHORT SALE CLIENT(S) SEEK THE ADVICE OF A REAL ESTATE ATTORNEY BEFORE COMMENCING WITH A SHORT SALE AS THERE MAY BE SERIOUS TAX CONSEQUENCES AND/OR POTENTIAL SELLER LIABILITY FOR ANY DEFICIENCY'S ON SHORT SALE NOTES AS AGREED TO BY THE LENDER(S). WE ALL KNOW THAT MOST HOMES ARE ALREADY IN FORECLOSURE PENDING AS A NON-JUDICIAL JUDGEMENTS, AND IT SHOULD BE THE SELLER'S RESPONSIBILITY (AND OURS ALSO TO RECOMMEND) THAT EITHER OUR AGENCY'S ATTORNEY (OR THEIRS) AT LEAST WORK TO GET THE LENDERS TO EITHER FULLY FORGIVE EACH AND EVERY PORTION OF THE DEFICIENCY IN WRITING AND/OR AT THE VERY LEAST MAKE IT VERY CLEAR IN WRITING TO THE SELLER EXACTLY WHAT THE LENDERS INTENT IS ON WHAT THEY INTEND TO DO WITH ANY DEFICIENCY AMOUNT AND THE EXACT CONDITIONS THE LENDER IS PROPOSING FOR THE APPROVAL OF THE SHORT SALE. WHILE OUR GOAL IS TO MAKE A COMMISSION AT THE END OF THE DAY FOR OUR HARD WORK WE ALL NEED TO BE AWARE (OR AT LEAST IN PART) OF WHAT FINANCIAL IMPACT THE SHORT SALE COULD HAVE ON THE SELLER AS OPPOSED TO LETTING THE HOME RUN ITS FULL COURSE UNDER NON-JUDICIAL DISCLOSURE, WHICH MAY BE IN SOME CASES IN THE SELLERS BEST FINANCIAL INTEREST INSTEAD OF OURS. ONLY A COMPETENT REAL ESTATE ATTORNEY FAMILIAR WITH CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODES AND ANTI-DEFICIENCY LAW CAN DETERMINE THIS (AND SHOULD ON BEHALF OF THE SELLER) BEFORE ANY SHORT SALE LISTING CONTRACT IS AGREED TO BY BOTH THE SELLER AND THE AGENT. LETS REMEMBER THAN MANY BANKS ARE NOT EVEN YET FAMILIAR WITH EXACTLY HOW TO HANDLE A SHORT SALE, LET ALONE UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WANT (OR ARE WILLING TO DO) WITH THE DEFICIENCY AMOUNT...AND THE SPIRAL IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER.

James - Interesting comment. You are obviously passionate in your belief that a short sale is not always the best choice and that a foreclosure can sometimes be better for the client. Are you or can you recommend a reputable attorney who is expert in giving advice on short sales? Also, are you aware that when writing in all caps it signifies that you are yelling? I'm sure the readers here on AR would love to hear more on your thoughts about how a short sale could be detrimental to a seller. Would you care to illustrate such a scenario? That would be most helpful to us all as we are here to learn and provide service to our clients.

JAN

2008

This is the range of short sale-negotiation fees that I am aware of:

1. Negotiator takes your listing for a 25 percent referral fee paid to you

2. Negotiator charges small non-refundable up-front fee ($500 to $1500) plus 1% sales commission at close of escrow.

3. Negotiator charges a negotiation fee of 30% of listing commission upon close of escrow.

4. Negotiator charges a coaching fee of 20% of listing commission at close of escrow.

5. Negotiator charges one month's mortgage payment up front to negotiate a short sale

6. Negotiator charges a percentage of the profit of an investment- flip.

What is your experience that seems to work the best?

Jack - There is no best answer in my opinion. Just as each traditional home sale is different, so is each short sale. We have seen a proliferation of short sales in MLS in the past months. Many agents I've talked with discourage their buyers from looking at short sales that have not been approved unless they have a lot of time and the ability to close quicly once the banks finalyy do respond.

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